Samsung Galaxy S10+ review: The Android flagship gold standard for 2019

What do you offer in a new flagship that is both technologically viable and practical for users? While this might seem a simple problem, it is a question that is becoming hard to answer if you are a consumer technology company. But do you really need to innovate for the sake of it? Well no. In fact, the best innovation these days is in ensuring that the features already available to users are made better and more effective.

With its new S10+, Samsung strives to achieve the same. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ in fact celebrates the 10th anniversary of Samsung’s Galaxy range, and the Korean Giant has fine-tuned its flagship to show off a decade of learning from over 2 billion customers. The S10+ is the manifestation of all this learning and a culmination of refined mobile phone technology.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ specs: 6.4-inch Quad HD+ Curved Dynamic AMOLED, 19:9 display (550ppi) | Samsung Exynos 9820 (8nm) | Triple camera with Dual OIS 12MP, f2.4, OIS: Telephoto, 12MP, F1.5/2.4, OIS: Wide-angle and 16MP, F2.2: Ultra-wide with 2x optical zoom, 10x digital zoom | 8GB RAM/128GB storage, 8GB RAM/512GB, 12GB RAM/1TB storage |MicroSD support (512GB)| 4100mAh battery | Fast wireless charging 2.0 | Wireless Power Share

Samsung Galaxy S10+ price in India starts at Rs 73,900 

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review: Fixing the pain points

The Samsung galaxy S10+ seems address a lot of issues that users have with their existing devices. In fact, it fixes most of them and puts a seal on top. Let’s start with the display. With most phones it is hard to read under the bright sun, or just compose a photo. But the Galaxy S10+ has a Dynamic OLED which is what you would expect Samsung to offer in its flagship, after all it is also the top display company in the world.

But this display is also arguably the brightest ever on a smartphone as 1200 nits. This means you can use this under the bight California sky and still be able to read the fine print. Also, the HDR10+ display means everything look stunning, even if you are just trying to take a photo of the boring Delhi sky.

There is more to this screen, literally. In fact, the front camera is embedded inside the display. And it’s done in a way it wont bother you. If you don’t like it, just get rid of it. But why would you want to get rid of it?

It’s just there in the corner, almost blinking at you when it tries to read your face to unlock of screen. But I am sure there will be those who don’t like the camera being there and will complain that it comes in the way of their movies and games. For me it was not a bother, and after a while I stopped noticing it was there.

Then the screen has the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner from Qualcomm. The scanner up front is more natural to use, though you are pretty much limited to using your thumb. On the S10+ is works well, though I felt an extra push was needed on the screen compared to just keeping your fingertip on the scanner as in regular ones.

The other pain point that Samsung has solved is with power management. The S10+ has a battery slightly larger that the Note 9 and lasts well over a day with regular use, despite the high-end processor and despite the extra bright screen. Plus, to add more power to this large battery, Samsung has added 15W fast charging.

Plus, there is PowerShare which lets you charge other compatible Galaxy devices like the Buds by just placing them on the back of this phone. This feature is so good, I charged my iPhone XS Max with this more than once. For me this is a great feature to have on any phone, especially if the phone is not extra large to hold this battery.

Then S10+ offers performance that does not leave any scope to complain. The India version is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 9820 octa-core processor and it does everything pretty smoothly. It is awkward even talking about the multiple-tab browsing and multi-tasking because this is as powerful as most laptops.

Despite all this, the phone stays super cool and this helps the battery last as long as it is meant to. The phone also has a clean user interface that is based on Android 9. The software is clean, intuitive and learns as the days progress. The Bixby screen for instance is exactly what you need in a phone, collating all that is important to you in one place. Bixby itself can help you with everything from queries to camera.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ camera review

Then there is the camera on the S10+. No exaggeration if I say I can buy this phone just for the ultra wide angle lens of its triple rear camera. The 123-degree lens captures everything and this hits you the moment you shift from the wide to the ultra wide. The results of three cameras are more than good, and Samsung shows you don’t need a lot of pixels to achieve that.

The front camera too has a 80-degree wide mode, though not as wide as the front. Then it can shoot selfie videos in 4K mode, which sets a new benchmark of sorts. The colour reproduction is great and almost true to what you see with the naked eye.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review: Negatives

This is a phone that does not have major issues. However, there are a couple of things I have to flag. One, the this phone has a design that is a bit slippery. I also find it a bit old world, I am not sure why.

Two, the low-light performance of the front camera could have been way better. Now it gets grainy when the light is not right.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review: Should you buy?

For me, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is the benchmark for an Android flagship at the moment. This phone is not about gimmicks, but about making life better whatever you do. This will be the phone others will be playing catch up with for rest of the year.

Yes, there will be phones that have better features, better pricing, but the S10+ has shown the way on what all boxes a flagship should tick this year to ensure the customer is happy.